A-Squared 3.0 final released

A-Squared 3.0 final released

http://www.emsisoft.com/en/kb/articles/news070604/

Vista support and Malware IDS for Vista

 

Thanks 4 the heads up.

Do I have to un-install v2.1 first or will this install over the existing version? Which is recommended? Thanks.

 

Hey, they give a special discount (50%) for the users from my country (Serbia)!

Birdman, it is always recommended to uninstall previous version, ecpecially as this is a new version and not just a build upgrade. But if you have some restore software installed, I'd update my snapshot and try the update (well, I always do that). Just to see how it fares...

Cheers.

 

wow. sounds like they added a whole lot more than just vista support in v3.0. i wonder how effective those shields (HIPS?) are? i may have to give this a whirl.

 

According to the website you can run the updater and update to 3.0 too.

 

Updated fine. But i'm not sure what exactly is new. Malware IDS sure looks better than CH, but how do we evaluate these things?
It has lots of checkboxes, all of them you want "ON". I don't know how to comment
It has this option too, "Activate intelligent false alerts reduction". I turned it off and sure enough, i had to allow Firefox because it was a trojan. Click allow and it appears in the applications rules as "Allow". You would want the FP's reduction ON.

 

Thanks for the heads up! I am downloading it now! Update went very well!

 

The update/upgrade worked well here.

 

Used the new version and it only detected cookie files only on the computer.

 

When a-squared Anti-Malware 3.0 is active and set to begin on start up, Avira Personal Premium Antivirus isn't recognized by the Windows Security Center after reboot although all of it's processes are running. This didn't happen with 2.1 and doesn't happen after reboot if a squared doesn't start up with Avira after reboot. I already posted this in the a-squared forums, and just thought a few members here might like to know.

 

I D/L'd the Free version. I notice that a2service.exe is running. I don't recall this from the earlier version??

...screamer

 

Your right. It runs after I close down my full version as well and didn't before. I use WinPatrol to stop it, but I'm sure you can also do it through Task manager. Of course it starts again after you update a squared.

 

I know I can stop it. I was just wondering -why its running?
What purpose does it serve if its not protecting me?

...screamer

 

I didn't mean you didn't know how, and just meant in general that it could be stopped. I too wonder why the exe remains running, and really wonder why it effects Avira at start up. Anyway take care screamer.

 

duke, I didn't mean to suggest that you were implying... It just came out that way.
ah ****, you know what I mean.

Does Avira start as a service? If so, you can permanently disable a2service.exe And see how Avira starts up.

...screamer

 

The update through the manual updater went fine here. I did have to close the gui and then start it again before the version 3.0 gui appeared. I rebooted anyways. This version has two processes running now. a2guard.exe 11,000K mem usage and a2service.exe at 33,000K mem usage. Before it was only 1 process at over 60,000K.

 

On the download page for the free version it says it has automatic updates. This is new right? I just installed it and was surprised to see that it didn't have a LONG list of stuff to install like the older version did. It only installed 212 things in 1 update but when I went to the main menu it had thousands of things in its database. I'm confused.

 

I've been running the free version 2.x for some time now. Update to 3.x via manual updater went fine. I also noticed the new service which was added. When I ran a scan I noticed in Task Manager that a2free.exe was using 2-5% cpu but a2service.exe was using up to 30% cpu.

This leads me to believe we have the classic gui (a2free.exe) and service (a2service.exe) setup. In the free version a2service.exe does nothing until a scan is actually started. I suppose, from a programmers point of view, it is easier to do it this way to keep the differences between the free and paid versions to a minimum.

I haven't tried setting the service to "Manual" start or "Disable" yet. I'm not sure "Disable" would be a wise choice. Perhaps I will try these options later, if I have some time.

Edit: Setting the service to "Manual" start works as expected. The service does not start when when the PC starts, only when I start the gui. Of course the service keeps running, even after closing the gui.

 

Many basic changes were needed to the software for Vista support because users do not have administrator rights as standard. For this reason, a-squared 3.0 contains a new Windows Service, which runs with system rights and always has access to the relevant areas, even if you are not logged on as the administrator.

The new a-squared Windows Service allows full non-administrator support on XP too. Regardless of which Windows user account you are logged into the PC with, a-squared always protects the entire PC and can search the entire PC for Malware.

All new features and changes of version 3.0 are described here in detail:
http://www.emsisoft.com/en/kb/articles/news070604/

In short: The service does the work and the GUI just displays the results. If you shut down the GUI, the service will unload everything and remain in idle mode using little memory. If you shut down the service while running the GUI, all GUI parts will be shut down too.

Note: The a-squared 3.0 scanner works in Windows safe mode too. It does not use the service in safe mode at all, as services are not started by default.

 

How do you delete an older version?I can't get rid of it.

 

Tried "add/remove programs" ?
You need to uninstall it rather than deleting it, if that's what you mean.
Mine updated to 3.0 manually, without uninstalling the old first. No problems. (Free version)

 

Hi Emsisoft, two Qs psl:

- Are updates incremental? or still a nightmare for dialup?
- I remember u once said that memeory usage will be reduced in future but it still seems much.

Thanks

 

Emsisoft:

Would adding password protection and execution prevention to A-2 Anti-Malware be too much? You could let it off by default (turning it on would scan for executables in common places, then ask for confirmation on each through the list of the ones found). Then a choice to block by default new executables, or prompt, etc.

Anything i execute would be business as usual, IDS and signatures.

These are two features that pop in my head, that could make sense.

BTW, congratulations on the program.

 

Nice to see the Command Line Scanner on my stick is updated as well

Gerard

 

When I try to install the free, Im getting the error:

Internal error: failed to expand shell folder constant "userdocs" :S